Clery Act & Crime Reporting

The Division of Public Safety encourages all present and prospective members of the Penn community to educate themselves about the various types of criminal incidents occurring in the Penn patrol zone. This section of the website is intended to provide the public with detailed information about the collection of crime statistics, and the requisite crime reporting mechanisms established by both federal and state law.

College or university reporting of crime statistics is frequently referred to as “Clery crime statistics” or “Clery reporting,” named after the “Clery Act”(see below for an explanation of this federal law). This federal law mandates the disclosure of certain statistics regarding criminal incidents, that occur within the geographic boundaries of an institution of higher education.

The state of Pennsylvania also mandates similar requirements under the state law.

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Clery Act and the wealth of information available to you. For questions, please contact the Office of the Vice President for Public Safety, at 215.898.7515.

Resource Downloads

The Clery Center for Security on Campus & the Clery Act

The Clery Center is a non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent violence, substance abuse and other crimes in college and university campus communities across the United States, and to compassionately assist the victims of these crimes. For detailed information about the history of the Clery Act in Congress, and the organization founded by the Clery family dedicated to raising awareness of crime on campus, and ensuring transparency in crime reporting at all colleges and universities, visit CleryCenter.org

The Clery award

The “Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award” was established in 1994 by Howard & Connie Clery to honor schools and individuals that have done extraordinary things to make college and university students safer. Penn’s Division of Public Safety was the recipient of this award in 2003 for our innovative use of technology in designing and implementing the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera network, and for our campus and community patrols. Visit http://clerycenter.org/jeanne-clery-campus-safety-award for a full list of recipients.

Annual crime reports

The Annual Crime Report as well as weekly summaries of crime statistics for both the Penn patrol zone (30th-43rd Streets, Market to Baltimore Avenue), and the Philadelphia Police Department’s 18th District (the geographic area in the city in which Penn is situated), is maintained by The Almanac, the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Record, Opinion and News. To access the Annual Crime Report, visit http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/crimes-index.html. The Almanac publishes all crime statistics reported in the Penn patrol zone available online going back to 1999. Additionally, the Division of Public Safety gives the public 24/7 general access to ALL crime in the Penn Patrol Zone via the 60 day crime log available on the kiosk in the lobby of DPS headquarters located at 4040 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Crime statistics collection and reporting

A Brief Explanation

The Division of Public Safety works diligently with our many partners within the University of Pennsylvania to educate our community about compliance with the Clery Act and state law. The Division of Public Safety adheres to all mandated reporting requirements. The statistics collected conform to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Act requirements. Our annual report, entitled, “Annual Security & Fire Safety Report” details two different sets of crime statistics, as per the requirements of federal and state law. ***In the annual crime report available to the public, the statistics listed under the Pennsylvania College and University Security Act are the same statistics submitted under the requirements of the Uniform Crime Reports. These statistics are collected by the FBI from each state in the nation; in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State Police is the agency responsible for submitting these crime categories.